cloth diapering

September 25, 2012

I'm home from many days gone this month, and it feels so good to settle in.

Though I am surrounded on all sides by work awaiting my attention, all I really want to do is make lists of baby names and shop for baby stuff. I think the fact that we hope to find out the gender of our babies next week along with the fact that we are moving ever closer to the halfway point of this pregnancy has me completely consumed with the wee ones.

Yesterday, I followed a rabbit along the trail and down the hole into shopping for cloth diapers. Oh, y'all. Things have changed so much since the last time I snapped a Fuzzi Bunz on Aliza Joy. It has been YEARS since I shopped for cloth diapers and though I diapered two children with cloth, I pretty much feel like I'm starting over! There are so many new brands, features, and options. It's head-spinning.

So, I'm turning to you all and hoping that you can tell me what I need to know!

Here are some parameters:

* We probably won't start cloth until the babies are at least two months old, maybe three months. With recovering from a(nother) Cesarean birth and adjusting to laundry for a family of six (FOURKIDSFOURKIDSFOURKIDS) and just getting a handle on life with two littles, I am planning a long period of grace for myself. Grace in the form of disposable diapers.

Having said that, I don't think I need newborn diaper recommendations. Starting with standard baby sizes should work just fine.

* I hate, hate, hate all-in-ones. Unless there is some new brand that dries SUPER FAST, I probably won't add any of these to our stash.

* I have plenty of prefolds, but I think I would really like to go with more fitteds this time. It will be spring or early summer by the time we start cloth diapering, and I have always loved to have my babies in t-shirts (or dresses) and then a covered cotton diaper in the warm weather.

* I love breathable covers over fitteds and prefolds. What's out there now in wool or other breathable covers?

* For out of the house, I really like pockets. I don't mind stuffing them. I have long relied on Fuzzi Bunz and bumGenius. What's new on the pocket scene?

So, tell me what ya got. What are your favorites? What brands and WAHMs are popular these days? What have you tried and HATED? And just in case, is there a type or brand of diaper that works better for baby boys? Diapering boys is entirely out of my wheelhouse, but I need to know these things. Maybe.

March 22, 2012

What is Your Green Resource? It's your chance to share all your green ideas, resources and solutions with ALL of our readers! So when you link up on any of our blogs, your idea will be shared with all of the readers here and at:

We know that many of you have posts of your own about your green journey that our readers will love. Some examples of Green Resources you can link up:* Real Food Recipes * Repurposed Projects * Upcycled Projects * Organic Gardening Tips * DIY Natural or Green * Thrifty Solutions

I loved using flat diapers on my girls. They were SO SO SO trim. I pinned them under wool covers for a perfect diapering system in the hot Texas summers. In Calley's post (which she originally posted as part of a flats and handwashing diaper challenge last spring), she breaks down the costs to show that if you needed to, you could cloth diaper a child from birth to potty learning for about $50. Can't get much thriftier than that!

So now it's your turn, my friends!

Just a few things to remember as you share your green living links - OLD OR NEW - with us each week:

* Make sure to link to the post with your green/natural/frugal living idea - not your homepage.

* We would love it if you could spread the word about Your Green Resource to YOUR readers by linking back to one of the four hostesses. Posts with a link back to Your Green Resource are the posts eligible to be pinned to our Your Green Resource pinboard each week.

** PLEASE READ THIS! I found several entries I wanted to pin this week, but none of them linked to YGR! Remember, you can link to ANY of the hostesses, but you must link to one of us in order to be pinned and featured! **

* Your Green Resource is a GREAT way to connect with other like-minded bloggers. Check out the other links shared this week - it's a great way to grow your own blogging community!

SortaCrunchy's featured sponsor in March is Fertility Flower - a cutting edge online ovulation calendar, offering fertility monitoring using a natural and science-based sympto-thermal method. They have been featured in The Stir, Pregnancy and Baby, and About.com.

It was such a treat to meet not only that list of incredible hostesses, but also Andrea of The Greenbacks Gal, Jill of Baby Rabies, and Jamie of Grumbles and Grunts, and I am sure there are others that I am leaving out! One of my Blogging Rock Star moments was finally meeting Annie of PhDinParenting - a woman I've read and admired for years. She was so gracious and kind and it was just awesome.

This was the party where I first met Morgan and Desiree, and in fact, I just saw this morning that if you click on Desiree's pictorial post of her BlogHer trip, you'll see Morgan and I at the Haute Green party in the second picture. (Morgan is the beautiful lady on the left. I am the one looking bewildered? confused? I don't know. It had been quite the day already by this point.)

So, the sponsors of Haute Green went all out in fixing up amazing goody bags for the Haute Green attendees. I'll be keeping some of this stash of goodness, but some of it is headed to the home of a SortaCrunchy reader. Maybe you? Read on!

NICE HAUL, right? I hope to share more with you about each of these as I have the chance to use them.

But now, on to what I brought back all the way from Sunny San Diego just for one of YOU! Behold, the diaper swag (minus a sweet little diaper from Go Green Diapers. I gave that one to Nicole, remember?):

So maybe you've been thinking of trying cloth diapers. Add a wet bag and you've got a great little starter kit here! Or maybe you are a cloth diaper hobbyist/addict and you are always looking to add to The Stash. (No shame! I'm only in recovery because everyone here has learned the potty!) Or maybe you have a sister/daughter/BFF/casual acquaintance who enjoys the cloth diapering and you want to gift her with a fun fluffy package - go on and enter!

The ONLY thing you have to do to enter is say something - ANYTHING - related to cloth diapering in the comments. That's it! Easy-peasy.

BONUS ENTRIES (MUST LEAVE ONE COMMENT PER BONUS ENTRY OR IT WON'T BE COUNTED I AM NOT KIDDING ABOUT THIS):

* Tweet about this giveaway. Make sure to mention @SortaCrunchy in your tweet.

* Link to this giveaway from your Facebook page OR just click the Facebook "like" button at the end of this post.

* Visit one of the contributors to the Haute Green swag bag and tell about a product there that piques your interest.

Giveaway will close Sunday, August 21st. Winner will be announced in this post.